Sophomore Cook a constant for senior-laden Duke in NCAA tournament

PHILADELPHIA — For the first time in 23 years, Duke has three established senior starters and leaders. Moreover, Mason Plumlee, Seth Curry and Ryan Kelly offer compelling stories, collectively and individually.

They've celebrated a national title and two ACC championships, endured March heartache and overcome injury.

Such a dynamic leaves little oxygen in the room.

But even as Curry battled a season-long leg ailment, even as Plumlee again earned first-team Academic All-America honors, and even as Kelly authored an unrivaled comeback, sophomore Quinn Cook has been a constant at point guard.

He will start his 32nd consecutive game Sunday against Creighton (28-7) in an NCAA tournament Midwest Regional contest, and his emergence has freed Curry to play more naturally on the wing, giving the Blue Devils (28-5) a pure, pass-first lead guard.

"We put the ball in (Quinn's) hands, and we're confident," said Kelly, who missed 13 games with a right foot injury. "His improvement throughout the year and since last year has been tremendous. He just continues to get better. He's really grown as a leader as this year's gone on, his ability to control our offense, and his defensive pressure on the (opposing) point guard."

Not to suggest Cook, who averaged 21 points as a senior at Oak Hill Academy in southwestern Virginia, isn't a scoring threat. A third-team All-ACC selection, he averages 12.2 points. He shoots 41 percent from beyond the 3-point arc, and, critical for a guard in end-game, 87 percent from the free-throw line.

In home victories over North Carolina and North Carolina State, Cook scored 39 points combined on 12-of-20 shooting. His 27-point, five-assist, five-rebound, four-steal performance against Clemson made him only the third Duke player to reach those numbers in a game, joining Grant Hill and Danny Ferry.

At November's Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas, against a field that included Louisville, Minnesota and VCU, Cook won the MVP award by averaging 13.7 points and 6.3 assists in three games.

"A tremendous boost to my confidence," he said.

Several weeks earlier, Cook's confidence had cratered. A supporting actor as a freshman, he was uncertain how to lead more experienced teammates — Plumlee, Curry and Kelly are Duke's most accomplished senior trio since Robert Brickey, Phil Henderson and Alaa Abdelnaby in 1990.

"The first couple of scrimmages, I struggled badly and I was taken out of the starting lineup," Cook said Saturday. "I was thinking too much. … Mason was the first person to tell the team, Look, this is our point guard.'"

Cook's effectiveness quarterbacking the offense is evident in Ken Pomeroy's statistics. Duke ranks third nationally in offensive efficiency, a measurement based on points per possession, and fourth in turnover percentage.

Friday against Albany, Cook scored only four points in a 73-62 victory, his lowest output in nearly three months. But his 11 assists and one turnover were far more telling.

Cook was disappointed with his 2-for-8 shooting, but his Friday stat line wasn't nearly as peculiar as his numbers in the ACC opener against Wake Forest: 0-for-11 shooting, career-best 14 assists.

"How well Quinn plays isn't determined by how many shots he makes and things like that," Curry said. "It's how he gets his … teammates involved, and I think (Friday) he got us going, finding Mason, finding me coming off screens."

Curry assisted on six of Plumlee's nine field goals, most at or near the rim.

"If he plays like that, it makes everybody's job easier," Plumlee said. "When he's playing loose, I mean smart loose and not loose with the ball, he's just throwing it up there by the rim. He's finding me. He's really fun to play with."

Coach Mike Krzyzewski has a long history with young point guards, starting with freshman Amaker in 1984. Two of his four national championship teams, 1991 and 2001, featured sophomore lead guards in Hurley and Jason Williams.

"When Quinn is playing like (he did Friday), we're just a better basketball team," Krzyzewski said. "He was in complete control of the game, and we didn't see it late, but he usually — because he wasn't put on the line — he usually hits every free throw, and he doesn't panic."

If Duke is to reach its 12th Final Four under Krzyzewski, Cook will have to remain in complete control.

David Teel can be reached at 757-247-4636 or by email at dteel@dailypress.com. For more from Teel, read his blog at dailypress.com/ teeltime and follow him at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP